Perspectives of Five Women

Summer Flashlight Tag

by Erin on June 27, 2011

I’ve been inspired by everyone’s delightful, nostalgic summer memories posts from a few weeks ago. I’m also home on the East Coast this week, spending some of my time in my hometown at my parent’s house in State College, so I’m reminded of many past summers. We had some good ones! Summers here, after all the students go home for break are wonderful. It’s so green this time of year, and the trees are sparkling with fireflies, just as Samantha described. The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts has always been a highlight of the summer and simpler fond memories include eating dinner on the screen porch, picking fresh vegetables from the garden, building fires in the backyard fire pit and playing catch with my dad in the field.

My favorite summer was the year we played flashlight tag every night. We had about seven kids in my neighborhood, all within three grades of each other. We grew up riding bikes and roller blades on our street, playing tag and many variations of hide and seek around the neighborhood. When we were old enough though, middle school to early high school, we started to play flashlight tag after dark. All of us, and more if anyone had friends or family staying with them, would meet each night after dinner and play flashlight tag until midnight! The rules were simple – set the boundaries of the playing field. For example: the creek to the street and one yard boundary to the fourth yard boundary. One flashlight with the seeker and all the others had a minute or two to hide. The first person to be found with the flashlight was the seeker for the next round. So, naturally, we got very good at this – dressing in warm dark clothes, moving stealthily in various alliances, not using the flashlight until we’d spotted someone. It was great fun with good friends. This group of kids were all really good sports, so we played every single night one summer and sporadically for the next several summers.